Jurnal Ilmiah Edukasi & Sosial, Volume 11, Nomor 2, September 2020, hlm. 127–131

HOW ERRORS MADE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING: A STUDY IN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL in MAKASSAR

Muh. Arief Muhsin English Education Departement, Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar [email protected]

Abstract: Speaking in English skill is a sign of language proficiency. The fluency in English conversation is a target of language teaching. However, errors in pronunciation when speaking is a phenomenon which must reveal. The study did observe the student’s errors in practising English conversation. The object of research was a private school in Makassar city. The result showed errors generally happen in pronunciation while students were practising the speaking class. It is proved that teaching pronunciation is an important aspect of language learning for EFL students. The study will become a reason to introduce pronunciation practice in senior high school in Indonesia. The study also contributed to support English practising in daily life. It needs to continue this study for the next researcher reveals the difficulty faced by EFL students.

Keywords: Error, speaking skill, conversation.

Speaking is a real language in communication, errors naturally made as a foreign language. and it needs interaction between one to other in Safrida, S., & Kasim, U. (2016) focused their delivering information. The skill of study on grammatical errors when speaking communication is the goal of teaching English, English. They found the students still have a how students can practice this skill. There are serious problem in term of grammatical aspect, some school that is successful in realizing especially the omission of noun inflexions and English learning only on the knowledge of irregular past tenses (Sundqvist, P., 2009). grammar and vocabulary (Kobayashi, Y., 2002). Ngangbam, H. (2016) concentrated his study in The students cannot speak English well because writing errors and found the indication of they do not use English in their daily life. The performance problems committed in this study fact shows that the students cannot speak in was due to mother tongue interference, misuse English though they have learned it for four sentence fragment, overuse, lack of grammatical years (Kirkgöz, Y., 2005). Consequently, the knowledge, formation and developmental errors. teachers may have to conduct some techniques Simbolon, M. (2015) studied the grammatical of learning speaking to encourage the students to errors in speaking activities; he found the errors practice this skill. But the students are not almost made by students were in 6 aspects; errors in the perfectly when they speak. They must make production of verb groups, errors in the something wrong or make a mistake. This distribution of verb groups, errors in the use of mistake is usually called error (Khan, H. R., & the article, errors in the use of preposition, errors Akter, M., 2011). Failure is a void in the in the use of questions and miscellaneous errors. understanding of the learner; because the learner Even though many researchers have done did not know what was correct. Sometimes the the study in speaking English error but this study student made a mistake, but they still ignore it. focused on a private school in Makassar. The They have a disagreement about the use of some private school is dominated by low economic form of expression. There, the teacher needs to income students. It is very interesting to observe identify what the students have made a mistake, their activity in the English classroom. Error in and the teacher can also figure out why the English is naturally made by EFL students but students make a mistake. The approach used to reveal their problems in speaking will help them determine the fault is called error analysis. to minimize their errors. The error could be a There are many researchers did study in mistake made in writing or otherwise, a speaking English, especially in errors analysis. wandering or deviation from the truth (Bates, D. Rashid, B. T. (2015) studied errors in Kurdish W., 2002). In other words, we will say that EFL undergraduate students; he concluded the errors are something that can’t be received from learner need to expose their target language and the quality which has been determined. Errors

Muhsin, How Errors Made In English Speaking: ...128131 could be a mistake that person can’t correct it by B : Wow, it’s great seeing you, how long themselves (Myhill, D., & Jones, S., 2007); it has it been? It must be more than six needs evidence about it. It implies that if the months. I’m doing good. How about scholars make a miscalculation, they will not you? correct their error by themselves, they have A : Not too bad. another to correct their error. B : What movie are you and the family Gerhart, B., Wright, P. M., Mc Mahan, G. going to see? C., & Snell, S. A. (2000) stated that there are A : I came here to see the Simpsons movie. two distinctions between error, they are the error How about you? of competence and error of performance. He B : I’m going to watch Terminator 4. noted that error of competence is the result of the application of rules by the second language Based on first student’s, it shown there were learner which do not (yet) correspond to the errors in the conversation between sample 05 second language. On the other hand, he stated and sample 06, while the error found was found that error of performance is the result of a in both samples, in sample 5, which is great, mistake in language use and manifest themselves movie and error in sample 6, which is great. The as repeats, false starts, correction or a slip of the finding of the wrong pronunciation in sample 5 tongue. In conclusion, second language learner is in the great word which the correct can realize their error of performance, and they pronunciation is (arejt), and the students say the can correct the error but not in the error of word great by saying (great), as well as the word competence. movie, where sample 5 is saying (mouvi) which

should be (ÈmuÐ.vi). While sample 6 found a METHOD pronunciation error on the word great, where The study focused on investigating the sample 6 say (gret) that should be spoken is students’ errors in speaking English, especially (arejt). in a private school which have low economic income students. There were four students as the Student conversation 2: subject of the study in qualitative approach design. The data in these studies are all the A : Hello, Jason, how are you, it’s been a problems that affect students in speaking English long time since we last met? are directly related to the accent and culture B : Oh, hi Sarah I’m have got a new job now around their place, which changes when they and is going great. How about you? talk every day. The data was taken in speaking A : Not too bad. activity while students were learning English in B : How often do you eat at this cafe? the classroom. It recorded when students were A : This is my first time my friends kept speaking in pairs. The data recorded were telling me the food was great, so tonight analyzed to find some errors made by the I decided to try it. What have you been students. The data categorize based on their up to? errors in speaking transcript conversation. the B : I have been so busy with my new job researcher formulates propositions related to the that I have not had the time to do much principle of logic, raises them as research else, but otherwise, I and the family are findings, then continues to review repeatedly the all fine. existing data, grouping the data that has been A : Well, I hope you and your family have a formed, and propositions that have been lovely meal. formulated B : Yes, you too.

FINDING AND DISCUSSION In conversation 2, there were some words Finding written in bold style. The words were mistaken There are four conversations analyzed in sound in pronunciation while speaking. The this study. The conversations showed in the results of the conversation above that found tables: some errors in sample 7. As for the error that surrounds the word long, try meal. From the Student conversation 1: results of the study, it was found several pronunciation errors in the words spoken by A : Hi, Jason, it’s great to see you again. Jurnal Ilmiah Edukasi & Sosial, Volume 11, Nomor 2, September 2020, hlm. 127–131 sample 7, namely, the terms long, try, meal, months. I’m doing good. How about which are the correct pronunciation of the three you? words are (lRK), (traj), (mjYl). While the wrong A : Not too bad. pronunciation of words by sample 7 is (long), B : What movie are you and the family (tray), (miil). going to see? A : I came here to see the Simpsons movie. Student conversation 3: How about you? B : I’m going to watch Terminator 4. A : Hello, my name is David. It’s nice to meet you. Based on student 4, it has shown there B : Hi, I’m Jenny. It’s my please to meet were errors in the conversation between you. sample 11 and sample 12, while the error A : Am sorry. what was your name again? found was found in both samples, in sample B : Jenny. 11, which is great, came, movie and error in A : So, Jenny, what do you do for a living? B : I work at the local school teaching sample 12, which is great. Some English. What do you for a living? pronunciation errors in sample 11 are in A : I’m also an English teacher, but am words great, came, movie where sample 11 currently out of work. pronounces (great), (kem), (muvi) where the B : Sorry to hear that. It has been really correct pronunciation is (ɡreɪt), (keɪm), nice talking to you. (ˈmuː.vi). while in sample 12, we found A : Yes. It was a great pleasure meeting some pronunciation errors in the great word you. where the correct pronunciation is (ɡreɪt) while sample 12 pronounces (griit) which is Based on student 3, it was found that the wrong pronunciation of the word great. there was an error in the conversation between sample 09 and sample 10, while the error found was found in both samples. The DISCUSSION error in sample 09 is name, meet, was, work, Based on students conversation 1, it can be great, pleasure and the error in sample 10 is found several pronunciation errors in sample 3, work, really, hear. Based on the results of namely the words name, was, work, great, and the study, it was found that pronunciation pleasure. As for the pronunciation error of errors in sample 9 are in the words name, sample 3 if it is related to the results of the meet, was, work, great, pleasure where the interview that is because sample 3 is not used in the use of English which is only used in learning wrong pronunciation is pronounced by and the daily language of sample 3 which is the sample 9, namely (nem), (miit), (was), Indonesian language where, sample 3 says that (wourk), (greet), (pleisur) which correct sometimes when he speaks English still pronunciation is (neɪm), (miːt), (wɒz), influences the first language, Indonesian. Based (wɜːk), (ɡreɪt), ('pleʒ.ər). While in the other on research results from Sayuri (2016) also tried findings from sample 10 found some to find some errors faced by fourth semester pronunciation errors in the words namely English Department students at Mulawarman work, really, hear where the correct University, the result shows that they are lack of pronunciation is (wɜːk), (ˈrɪə.li), (hɪər) vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar usage, and where students pronounce pronunciation the mentality of students which caused a lack of errors namely (wok), (real), (her). self-confidence, which is related to the results found that there were found some pronunciation errors from conversation 1 due to lack of Student conversation 4: understanding of vocabulary and how to pronounce the word in English and seen from A : Hi, Jason, it’s great to see you again. conversation 1 which he had lived in his native B : Wow, it’s great seeing you, how long area from birth and the language that is often has it been? It must be more than six used is Indonesian so he rarely speaks in English Muhsin, How Errors Made In English Speaking: ...128131 which causes a lack of confidence when going to frequent speaking in Indonesian, Buginese, and use English. Enrekang. He does not agree that social and In student conversation 2 found some errors environmental skills can improve in speaking in the pronunciation of the word that is work, English because it can be influenced by so many hear. The result related to interview in languages. If we associate the above findings conversation 2 said that the influence of the first with the previous researcher by Nation’s (2001) language in Indonesian in speaking English still mentioned the first language has a small but affects Indonesian is the dominant language for important role to play to communicate meaning conversation 2 in daily activities. It assumes that and content. The influence of the first language environmental and social influences do not on the second language indicated low influence it in increasing the use of English so acquisition. It concluded too rarely using foreign there is a lack of knowledge about vocabulary languages can be interpreted as a lack of and the pronunciation of words in English. understanding. According to Utami (2016) in her According to Nation’s (2001) “The role of the research showing that errors can often occur in first language in foreign language learning” speaking because they did not realize and don’t mentioned the first language has a small but know what is correct, so it can be concluded that important role to play to communicate meaning the pronunciation error can be attributed to our and content. The influence of the first language knowledge of vocabulary in English so that it on the second language indicated low causes pronunciation errors. acquisition, it can be reduced by natural intake and language use or it can be eliminated. The CONCLUSION error found in conversation two is due to the lack The study some errors in students speaking of understanding in English. According to Utami English as foreign language influenced by (2016), the wrong pronunciation of the words Indonesian. some of these words are the words found in sample 3 is due to ignorance of the of the short conversation text that were wrongly vocabulary, which is mistakenly embedded in mentioned by students. The errors were several words. dominated in pronunciation of EFL students. It The next conversation in student 3 found is influenced by mother tongue as the first some pronunciation errors of words mentioned language and less practicing English in by sample 5 among other great, movie and error. conversation. Some of these pronunciation errors related to the interview results of researchers and students can REFERENCES be said that these pronunciation errors are caused Bates, D. W. (2002). Enlightenment aberrations: by the use of the dominant language. He often error and revolution in France. Cornell uses Indonesian and Ambonese while English is University Press. only used when learning English itself. The Gerhart, B., Wright, P. M., MC MAHAN, G. C., & subject agrees if social, and environment can Snell, S. A. (2000). Measurement error in influence or might improve and train them in research on human resources and firm speaking English. According to Sayuri (2016) performance: how much error is there and how also tried to find some errors faced by fourth does it influence effect size estimates?. semester English Department students at Personnel psychology, 53(4), 803-834. Mulawarman University, the result shows that Khan, H. R., & Akter, M. (2011). 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